Musical instrument



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

G. A. BRAGHHAUSEN. MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

No. 593,761. Patented Nov. 16,1897.

WITNESSES: INVENTOR mg m ATTORNEYS (No Model.) v 2 Sheets-8heet 2. G. A. BRAGHHAUSEN. MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Patented Nov. 16.1897.

INVENTOR ATTORN EYS UNTTED STATES PATENT Fries.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 593,761, dated November 16, 1897. Application filed May 5, 1897. Serial No. 635,147. (No model.)

To (tZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GUSTAV A. BRAOH- HAUSEN, a resident of Rahway,Union county, State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Musical Instruments, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to musical instruments wherein vibrating steel tongues are employed. 1

In all steel-comb instruments great difficulty has been found heretofore in providing two or more tongues of exactly the same pitch. This is due to a variety of causes, principal among which is the occurrence of flaws in the steel of which the tongues are made.

Heretofore in instruments employing steel combs it has been common, as shown in my Patent No. 500,370, dated June 27, 1893, to employ a series of star-wheels, each of which is adapted to vibrate two comb-teeth, one on each side of a star-wheel. In accordance with this system the two tongues or teeth of a comb operated by a single star-wheel are vibrated simultaneously and must be of the same pitch or tone, and the tongues of the same pitch being on opposite sides of the starwheels there is no sympathetic vibration of the tongues of the same tone, and every defeet in tone of the individual tongues of a comb is brought out to its fullest extent. It has also been common in What are known as Swiss instruments to provide a duplicate arrangement of combs in one line to be operated by a pin-cylinder, but this necessitated an enlargement of the entire device, with a corresponding increase in cost of manufacture, without in any way increasing the volume of tone of the instrument.

The object of my invention is to overcome the difficulties heretofore presented and to produce a compact instrument which will be perfect in tone and wherein the cost and time consumed heretofore in tuning combs will be greatly reduced.

To this end my invention consists in the ar-' rangement and combination of parts and to details hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings,wherein like characters represent corresponding parts in the various views, Figure 1 is an illustration of a music-scale. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of a sufficient number of parts of a musical instrument to illustrate my invention. Fig. 3 is an end view of the same.

In the drawings, (t represents a star-wheel standard in which is. mounted a series of star-Wheels b. On each side of this series of star-wheels is a comb A B. From Fig. 2 it will be observed that each of the tongues of a comb in the instrumentis of about the width of two star-wheels and that adjacent starwheels vibrate tongues on opposite sides of the series of star-wheels, each star-wheel vibrating but one tongue. It is obvious that from this arrangement great economy of space is provided over an arrangement wherein the combs are mounted in a single line and a star-wheel is utilized to vibrate each tooth of a comb. Instead of arranging tongues or teeth of the combs of the same pitch on opposite sides of the star-wheels in accordance with what is known as a duplex system I arrange a series of teeth of the same pitch or tone on one side of a series of star-wheels preferably adjacent to each other. By this means if a flaw occurs in one or more of the tongues of the same pitch it is drowned, because of a sympathetic vibration of the other tongues of the same tone When one of said tongues is vibrated by a star-wheel. Thus, for instance, if the tongue 0 contains a flaw therein and said tongue is vibrated by its star-wheel b the tongue 0 sets the tongues d into vibration by sympathetic action, and any inaccuracy between the combs will be smothered or drowned and a uniform tone be given to the four tongues c d d d of the same tone. The scale in Fig. 1 corresponds to the tones of the comb-teeth shown in Fig. 2, and the comb-teeth bear letters which correspond to their respective notes on the scale.

It will be observed that by means of my invention a simple and efficient means is provided which overcomes the difficulties heretofore found in mechanical musical instru* ments wherein comb-teeth are employed and that the time, labor, and expense heretofore given to provide comb-teeth which shall be of exactly the same tone as other teeth in the instrument is lessened.

mounted on opposite sides of said star-Wheels, each of said combs having a plurality of tongues of the same tone on one side 01' the series of star-Wheels and each tongue of the combs bein g" vibrated by an independent starwheel with adjacent star-wheels operating comb-teeth mounted on opposite sides of said star-Wheels.

GUSTAV A. BRAOHIIAUSEN.

Witnesses:

CHARLES E. SMITH, Gno. 'E. Monsn 

